Home equity among homeowners
in England and Wales aged 65 and over amounts to £611 billion of equity, with a
further £43bn held by pensioners in Scotland. These figures come from Prudential's Equity Release Index, a report that tracks the amount of equity held in property by those
aged 65 or above.The report shows
that older homeowners are now seeing gains in their property value as the housing market begins to show signs of
stabilising, following two years of decline.
In Wales, the over-65s saw values
rise by £3,448, followed by London's over-65s who gained £3,296, while in the
West Midlands retired homeowners gained £2,789 and the North West saw increases
of £818.The Index showed that
Scottish home equity is on a steeper increase than the rest of the UK, with a
rise in value of 3.7 per cent, compared to a decrease of 0.03 per cent in
England and Wales although the total value of property equity for the over-65s
is still more than £3billion lower than it was a year ago.
The positive growth in
house value in this age bracket is particularly good news for those planning to
follow an equity release programme.
